Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image carrier that includes a conductive substrate, and a photosensitive layer and a surface protection layer disposed on the conductive substrate in that order;
• a charging device that charges a surface of the image carrier;
• an electrostatic image forming device that forms an electrostatic image on the charged surface of the image carrier;
• a developing device that includes an electrostatic image developer containing a toner for electrostatic image development, and develops the electrostatic image on the surface of the image carrier to form a toner image;
• a transfer device that transfers the toner image onto a recording medium;
• and
• a cleaning unit that cleans the surface of the image carrier by a cleaning blade contacting the surface,
• wherein:
• the toner has a binder resin containing:
• (i) a crystalline resin, and
• (ii) an amorphous polyester resin, in which an amount of an alkylene oxide adduct of bisphenol A, if present, is not more than 5 mol %, relative to a total amount of polyhydric alcohols;
• a tetrahydrofuran-soluble component of the toner has a weight average molecular weight Mw and a number average molecular weight Mn determined from gel permeation chromatography, and the Mw is in a range of from 25,000 to 60,000, and Mw/Mn is in a range of from 5 to 10;
• and
• the toner has absorbances measured by infrared absorption spectrometry, a ratio of an absorbance at a wavelength of 1500 cm−1 to an absorbance at a wavelength of 720 cm−1 is 0.6 or less, and a ratio of an absorbance at a wavelength of 820 cm−1 to the absorbance at the wavelength of 720 cm−1 is 0.4 or less.